Sometimes I hear people say that using your food storage is difficult, time-consuming and unrealistic. I beg to differ. Having the following items on hand makes my holiday that much easier. Plus when I snag these items when they are really cheap it saves me money, too. Obviously these are not the only things that we are eating, but combined with fresh ingredients, once again my food storage has reduced the stress in my life.

Evaporated milk- in the mashed potatoes

Canned potatoes- Precooked, and easy to mash, plus they taste much better than potato flakes

Stuffing- I have many talents, making stuffing from scratch is not one of them.

Bottled gravy- ditto

Cranberry sauce

Peanut butter- I make a fabulous peanut butter pie that I serve with hot fudge, I’ll have to put the recipe up here sometime.

Green beans- Green bean casserole, of course.

Cream of mushroom soup- ditto

Sliced almonds and french onions- ditto

Canned crushed pineapple- Dumped it on the ham and let it roast.

Canned pumpkin- in the cheesecake

And last night I am made Taco Soup using black beans, kidney beans, canned tomatoes, chicken broth, canned chiles, canned corn, and dried carrots. It’s fast, delicious, warm and the kind of meal that I feel like preparing after I’ve spent all day cooking.

Does anyone out there have any great holiday recipes that include your food storage?